Residential Rentals up 21% in Mumbai, 6% in Pune in 2018

India’s property rental market has registered good growth in the major cities this year, edging out the buying and selling segment where average prices have remained flat and are expected to remain so in 2019 too.

According to our research team and enquiry through our website www.propertyalways.com, the residential property market in Mumbai, Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Chennai saw an over 13% increase in average weighted rental value in 2018, while capital values remained dormant.

Mumbai recorded highest rent inflation of 21%, followed by Chennai and Bengaluru at 14% and 14%, respectively. In Gurgaon, rents moved up by 10% while Pune saw the lowest rental inflation at 6%.

“In spite of rent inflation, a larger number of people are looking for mid size flat/houses rather than 3 or 4 bhk, which was largely sought after last year. Demand for rental accommodation is slated to increase further,” Arun Sharma, CEO of www.propertyalways.com, told an interview. “However, owning a house remains an important milestone for Indians and many aspire to do so in the coming year.”

While rentals remained high in the country’s top cities in 2018, average property prices remained largely static. Despite sales and new supply picking up quarter-on-quarter across the top cities, the issue of stalled projects showed few signs of resolution.

Kiya Parmanick, chief marketing officer of Geeta Estate ConsultantA Property Consultants, said average prices at the pan-India level saw only 2% increase from the previous year—from 5,300 per sq ft in 2017 to 5,406 per sq ft in 2018.

“At the city level too, average property prices hovered around the same levels as last year. Q-O-Q (Quarter on Quarter growth) trends also suggest that there was no headwind change across cities – remaining well within 2%. Housing prices will remain flat in 2019,” said Mrs.Parmanick.